Baker, Irene Bailey, 1901-1994

Edith Irene Bailey Baker (November 17, 1901 – April 2, 1994) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a United States Representative from Tennessee from 1964 to 1965. She was the widow of Howard Baker Sr. and the stepmother of Howard Baker Jr.

Born Edith Irene Bailey in Sevierville, Tennessee, she attended public schools in Maryville and Sevierville and studied music. She served in local government as a court clerk from 1918 to 1924, eventually becoming the deputy clerk and master in the chancery court in Sevierville. Her first husband died, and she was hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as an abstractor of titles in the early 1930s. She met Howard Baker, a widower, and they were married in 1935. Following his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1950 in an eastern Tennessee district which encompassed Knoxville, Irene worked in his Washington, DC, office.

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